May i, 1889.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
superior to the preserved fish procurable at the 
bazaar ; but the Madras Board of Eevenue correctly 
observe that the fishermen evince little or no 
interest in these curing experiments. It is so also 
in Ceylon. This should not, however, discourage 
tae officers in charge who, as in so many other 
instances, in dealing with orientals, must just system- 
atically carry on their operations until their 
labour is at length crowned with some measure 
of success and native ignorance and apathy 
gradually overcome. 
One question to be answered, however, seems to be, 
" Have we sufficient fish in Ceylon for curing pur- 
poses ?" It is said that the fresh fish conveyed 
daily by the seaside railway to Colombo is by no 
means sufficient to meet the requirements of the 
population of the metropolis. During certain seasons 
ot the year it is true fish is very plentiful, especially 
at the ports where the curing process is carried 
011 at present. But as the railway is _ extended 
southwards, may we not find the available fish 
supply more and more drawn on for Colombo and 
the Central Province ? One good result may be an 
increase in the number of fishermen and of fishing 
boats, and no doubt with so dense a population as 
occupies our South-western coast districts, a wider 
market for the " harvest of the seas " would lead 
more of the Sinhalese to turn their attention to 
the occupation of those who venture over the coral 
reefs in order to earn a livelihood. 
4 
COCONUT CULTIVATION. 
Fumigation. 
(By an Old Planter.) 
In conversation with a recent pervert to the smoke 
bath theory, he said I was setting up my single opinion 
against the experience of many practical men, as well 
as the teaching of the local Agricultural School. I 
replied that I would always do my little best in battle 
with unscientific nonsense wheresoever I met it ; 
that I had met very few practical coconut planters, 
who either observed facts accurately or reasoned 
logically. As for the Agricultural School, if it is 
really teaching us absurd aod scientifically groundless 
theories as any it proposed to supersede, the sooner it 
was closed up the better lor the interests of true 
knowledge. 1 
AVhen this smoke theory was first promulgated about 
eighteen years ago, its inventor claimed no more for 
it than that it drove the kurumioia (beetle) out of the 
trees. That after a time the ravages of this iusect 
was greatly moderated there is no doubt, but simul- 
taneously with the application of the smoke cure a re- 
ward was offered for the delivery of grubs. It was a 
populous district with plenty of idle boys and soon 
every dung heap, every rotten tree, every heap of 
decaying vegetable matter in the neighbourhood was 
ransacked. Grubs were brought in thousands and 
the search continued till it became unprofitable. All 
the effect was ascribed to the smoke and nothing 
to the grub hunting to which it was really due. 
The coconut field subsequently under the manage- 
ment of this gentleman, was of small extent under 
thirty acres. It was in good heart when he took 
charge, and its crops had been annually increasing 
for seven years ; within or adjoining it were cooly 
lines, watch huts, cattle sheds, and cinnamon wadiyas. 
Here the smoke treatment was carried out in full 
swing, and to it was ascribed the fact, that mature 
coconut trees, on a specially suitable soil, continued 
not only to maintain their former rates of bearing, 
but occasionally exceeded it ; all the sources of natural 
and artificial manuring were ignored and smoke alone 
was declared the one all-snfficient manure for coco- 
nut trees. 
Those who have no tincture of agricultural science 
are easily led by any big mouthed charlatan, who 
puts forth a high sounding claim on their credulity. 
Who would go the trouble and expense of accumu- 
lating dung heaps, manipulating the soil, and pur- 
chasing costly artificial fertilizers, if their credulity 
extended to the belief that an occasional smoke bath 
was all the coconut tree needed to flourish and yield 
large crops? 
A fact that no one disputes is that in the vicinity of 
a set of lines, a bungalow, a watch hut, or any other 
building where men or animals dwell, young coconuts take 
an earlier start, and keep ahead of the outlying field. The 
old Sinhalese way of accounting for this fact is the as- 
sumption that the coconut plant loves the human 
voice and feels lonely and dejected when deprived of 
its music. A more rational theory is that wherever 
men and animals have their home a process of natural 
manuring is in constant action, quite equal to the 
elfect in question. 
I offered this solution of the problem to an esteemed 
friend, who gravely told me, that the small quantity of 
nitrogenous matter brought to the spot by the living 
creatures located there was quite inadequate to the 
effect produced, but that the smoke from time to 
time raised in or about the dwelling was the true cause. 
Being a rather slow thinker, and not having the facts 
and arguments on which a long unchallenged opinion 
rested in battle array, I could on the instant only 
state my dissent from both my friend's propositions. 
Since that time, however, I have been frequently called 
on to turn my attention to this subject by informa- 
tion, that the belief in the efficacy of smoke, and the 
practice of raising it, was rapidly spread- 
ing and finally as above stated that it had 
been taken up by the teachers of the Agricultural 
School and thus likely to become a leading feature 
in the coconut cultivation of the future. I have there- 
fore accepted it as a duty, to do what I can to refute 
an erroneous theory, and check a useless practice. 
The standard authorities in such matters tell us 
that the food of plants consist of certain elements 
derived from the soil in a state of solution through 
the roots and of certain atmospheric elements ab- 
sorbed by the leaves. 
That more than nine-tenths of the bulk and 
weight of all vegetable tissues consist in varied speci- 
fic proportions of the four elements,— carbon, oxygen, 
hydrogen, and nitrogen. 
That the elements derived by plants directly from 
the atmosphere are only carbon and oxygen and that 
all their other specific component elements are 
derived from the soil. 
That the conditions of the perfect healthy develop- 
ment of any given terrestrial plant are sufficient 
room above ground and an unfailing supply under- 
ground of its specific elements in a soluble state with 
water enough to solve them. 
Oxygen and carbon being permanent constituents 
of the atmosphere there can be no question about 
their sufficiency for all the animal and vegetable wants 
of the globe. Were it possible for a deficiency of 
these elements, to take place, mankind would cease 
to care for the life of plants and seek only to save 
their own. 
If it is believed that coconuts absorb smoke directly, 
such belief can only rest on the supposition that there 
is a deficiency of carbon in the air, — a proposition 
beyond the region of demonstrable facts. It has been 
ascertained that the proportion of carbon in the air 
differs at various times and in different places, but 
at no time and in no place has the question ever 
arisen as to its sufficiency for the wants of vegeta- 
tion. It is more probable that the supply of carbon 
in the atmosphere is in excess of the wants of veget- 
able life, but if such should be the case plants will 
absorb no more than their due specific proportion 
of that or any other of their constituent elements. 
I am reminded of an anecdote of Charles II. 
by the speculations of "Siyane Korale." At a seance of 
the Koyal Society, H. M. proposed to the assembled 
savants the following problem: — 
If you put a basin with water into one scale of 
a balance and a corresponding weight into the other, 
how, or by what law of nature is it that if you 
put a fish into the water in the basin it will not 
tura the beam? 
